Warped Tradition

Finally got to give Jess the bracelet I made her and luckily it fit. I've known her since the 7th grade and she's pretty much my best friend ever. I hardly ever get to see her since she goes to school at UF and i'm all the way in Fort Lauderdale. There's one time of year when I know i'll definately get to see her and that's for Warped Tour.  This is our 8th year going so it's safe to say it's a tradition. Even though the Florida sun is killer good times are always had. And as we get older we get wiser. We've learned to enjoy the air conditioned room before it gets filled with a hundred disgustingly sweaty people. And we got to see Gym Class Heroes, Every Avenue, Pepper, The Expendables, and Less Than Jake, to name a few.

Lemon Thyme Chicken...

So I decided to make lemon thyme chicken with pasta this thursday. I got home from the store and realized that I forgot to buy a lemon... greaaat. Fuck it, I made lime thyme chicken instead. I get overly paranoid when i'm cooking chicken. I'm afraid i'll undercook it so I over cook it instead. Then the liquid for the sauce evaporated, so I didn't have that much sauce. Instead of using my brain and adding more liquids, I let it be so I could eat asap. It tasted good, but definately needed some improvement.

Homemade Surprises: Potluck!

So I had little get together today with some awesome people that revolved around something everybody loves, food. I think Nisha won the best chef award. She made bean dip, roast chicken, mashed potatoes, aaand salad. But I think my favorite was Jenny's orzo, even though I don't like olives. I gotta get that recipe. Scott and I contributed with:

Watermelon Lemonade <3

                                 

Perfect for the hot Florida summer.

Needed

A strainer, big glass/plastic pitcher

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice (about 6 big lemons)

1 cup sugar

4 cups water 

4 cups chopped, seeded, watermelon

 Instructions

First make the syrup by combining 1 cup water with 1 cup sugar in a saucepot. Heat on the stove until the sugar is dissolved. Let the mixture cool. Next, juice the lemons, and use the strainer to get all the seeds out. Combine the 4 cups of water, syrup (water sugar mixture), and lemon juice in the pitcher. Puree 4 cups of chopped, seeded watermelon with 2 cups of the lemonade mixture. You can strain it again if you want less watermelon pulp in your lemonade but you don't have to. Add it back to the pitcher and stir.

Aaaand Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been wanting to make these forever. Every time I told people that it always got mixed reviews. Either a that's "Awesome" or "Disgusting!" I'll admit the first time I heard of them I thought it was crazy but the salty & sweet combo intrigued me. These cookies turned out really good and smelled amazing when they came out of the oven. The bacon flavor was very mild though. Even Jenny's mom, who probably wouldn't have tried it if she knew what they really were, liked them. If you're brave enough to try them I got the recipe from the blog pete bakes!

Beer-Battered Fish Tacos

Super Yummy Fish Tacos
Makes 2 servings, and takes less than 30 minutes to make.

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
1/3 cup beer
8 ounces tilapia fillet, cut crosswise into 1-inch wide strips
2 teaspoons canola oil
4 corn tortillas, warmed

1. Combine flour, cumin, salt and cayenne in a medium bowl. Whisk in beer to create a batter.

2.Coat tilapia pieces in the batter. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Letting excess batter drip back into the bowl, add the fish to the pan; cook until crispy and golden, 2 to 4 minutes per side.

Serve with guacamole, salsa, cheese or whatever the hell you want.

*If you're cooking for two I would double up because it's 2 "health conscious" servings.

Got the recipe from eatingwell.com

Make Love Not Horcruxes

Please excuse my nerdy-ness but... 
I've got a serious case of the Post Potter Depression.            

I read the first Harry Potter movie when I was in either third or fourth grade. I alluded to nerdy-ness in my younger years in my snarky bookworms post. But Harry Potter is really what made me love reading. Don't get me wrong as a kid I always liked reading those colorful picture books. But when it came time to "grow up" and read books without pictures nothing captured my interest. I remember my mom used to buy me a book every time we went to the mall  to encourage me to read. But I would start them and not finish them, or left them on the shelf to gather dust. It wasn't until I read HP that I realized I love reading. And if there's a book this good there must be many more out there. This series holds a special place in my heart because I, like so many others, grew up with it. With each book I matured, but so did the characters in the book, as well as the story itself. I remember waiting with anticipation for each book to come out and the sleepless nights that came with devouring it right away. Literally reading it under a blanket with a flashlight and hoping my parents wouldn't check up on me and make me go to bed. When I read the final book I was in highschool and it was a sad day. But I had the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to look forward to and the last movies. Now i'm in college and i've seen the last movie. It feels like the end of an era.

The Cure

• Re-read the books.
• Watch AVPM again.
• Go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on July 30th despite the disgustingly hot Florida summer and the ridiculous amounts of tourists and kids still enjoying their summer vacation.
• Continue with the HP crafts.                   

Inspired by the one made on craftster <3 

Loony Luna Radish Earrings

Made them in a rush the night before seeing Deathly Hallows part 2. So they turned out looking kinda funky and more like lumpy strawberries dipped in white chocolate but from far away they don't look so bad [= It was annoying because the white clay was hard but the red clay was really soft.  I might try and make them again later, but i'm more interested in making beaded ones like in the movie.

Random fact #1 Evanna Lynch made the radish earring her character wears herself. Apparently the costume designer made ones but hers were better.
Random fact #2 Luna Lovegood is one of my favorite HP characters and I named one of my kitties after her.
The tutorial I used to make the earrings:

South West Pasta Skillet

I do a lot of baking but I don't cook very often. So i'm trying to start cooking every Thursday night for myself and once a week with my boyfriend. There's suppoused to be a potluck this weekend as well so i'm excited to cook something for that. This was my first Thursday night effort.

Southwest Pasta Skillet

Prep: 10 min Total Time: 22 min Makes: 5 Servings

Ingredients

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken boobs cut into bite-size pieces

1/2 cup chopped green peppers  *bleh

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained

1 pkg (10 oz) frozen corn *I didn't use the whole bag but if you want you can

1 tub Philadelphia Santa Fe blend cooking creme

2 cups hot cooked rotini pasta

1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese

Get cookin!

Cook and stir chicken and peppers in a large nonstick on medium-high heat 6-7 minutes, or until chicken is done. Add tomatoes, corn, and cooking creme; cook and for 3 minutes.

Add pasta and 1/2 cup shredded cheese; cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Top with rest of cheese; cover and remove from heat. Let stand until cheese is melted.

Beads, Beads, Dinosaur?

 

So I've been dabbling in beading but don't know any real techniques. So most of the projects have messy, dubious, closures which run the risk of falling apart. If I ever do decide to start selling things I make, I definately don't want that on my conscience. So I took a free beginner beading class at Karen & Friends in Downtown Melbourne on wednesday. This bracelet was the final result. It didn't turn out exactly as I wanted but I love how neat the closures are.

Ignore my hideous nails! I went back to Karen & Friends today to buy some tiger line so I could practice what I learned and also to ask about the more advanced classes. She recomended me taking another free class and learning the earring making technique so i'd be more prepared. The free classes are only on wednesdays and since I have school on wednesdays I wouldn't be able to take the free class until September. I told her as much and she taught me on the spot. They're suppoused to be earrings but obviously they're not matching, so I'm just gonna use them as pendants.

Not only are they an amazing bead store that has free beginner beading classes, reasonably priced advanced classes, cool/funny employees, they also sell various handmade goods. I couldn't resist this Dino-Plant. He still needs a name. Any suggestions? I was thinking Ted as in "Haaaave you met Ted?" but Barney could work too. He is a purple dinosaur after all. Or maybe Sheldon... decisions, decisions.

Back in the USA

Happy 4th of July! I haven't posted anyting in ages, because I've been away in Sweden visiting family. But now i'm back just in time for barbecues & fireworks. Saw these cupcakes in a magazine a couple of weeks ago and i've been wanting to make em' ever since. Today seemed like the proper time.

Corn on the Cobb Cupcakes Anyone?

Needed

• Vanilla Cupcakes
• Frosting (any white frosting you prefer, I used lemon instead)
• White & yellow JellyBeans
• Yellow starburst (cut in half)
• Black & white decorating sugar
• Corn holders